Lung transplantation has been an effective treatment for patients with end stage pulmonary disease. The major challenge facing lung transplantation is organ availability. In efforts to increase organ availability research has focused on improving organ preservation. The current standard is hypothermic storage with solutions that approximate an intracellular electrolyte composition (hyperkalemic, hypermagnesemic) and substrate enhancement (dextrose+/-insulin).
One problem encountered during organ transplantation is reperfusion injury to the transplanted organ after it has been transplanted to the organ recipient. Attempts have been made in the past to minimize reperfusion injury, however, the discovery of a more effective means for minimizing reperfusion injury is needed. Recent attention has been focused on limiting reperfusion injury by blocking the generation of or scavenging oxygen derived free oxygen radicals. One such approach has been to include allopurinol in the reperfusion solution. Various patents describe solutions for the preservation of organs. Examples of such patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,798,824 to Belzer et al and 4,797,277 to Arfors.
In spite of all these approaches, preservation of organs such as lungs, pancreas, heart and liver is still a problem. For example, in lung preservation the current preservation time is so short that the donor has to be next to the recipient. In other words there is no preservation time.